+ IN LOVING MEMORY Bottled Memories of Our Beloved Dead

How do we remember our beloved dead? We collect empty bottles as visual and tangible vessels of invisible and intangible memories of our beloved dead. We fill them up with personal memorabilia and ephemeral objects reminiscent of our fragmented yet intimate encounter with them. We wrap them with primed canvas of painted stories, colored papers of pasted memoirs, plastic wrappers of hoped presence, uncut cord of intertwined relations. We re-member these fillings and wrappings in the undiscernable interior and exterior of the bottles which transformed them into assembled testimonial gifts of their earthly sojourn. Then, we offer lighted candles of intense prayers for their eternal repose to the One who created them and breathed new life in them. We burn incense sticks of respectful veneration for our gratitude of their eternal legacy to us. We display them to ignite others with the flame with which they set us on fire.

In Loving Memory Opening

“This novel experience is touching in its simplicity and many of those who came expressed their appreciation for the concept, an indication that it would soon become part of our annual rituals.”